Handbook of Type and Lettering 15

lanced, ugly, and difficult to read —it
might even be necessary to read certain
words letter by letter. To preserve the
unity of each word, the spaces between
the letters need to be balanced optically;
no single form should dominate the
others (Figure 43). Two neighboring
vertical lines need more space between
them than a vertical next to a round
shape or a diagonal. Consider both the
space between letters and the space sur¬
rounding the letters in question to find
the optimal distance. Letter spaces seem
to intrude into interior spaces of letters
that have open sides, and the effect is
additive.

No absolute values can be given for
letter spacing. As a rule a line can be
considered balanced when the letter O,
placed between vertical lines, does not
seem to fall out of the text. Practice with
the group of letters MOHN (Figure 44).

For lowercase letters use the equiva¬
lent of the inner width of the letter m as
a guide for the distance between letters.
If the inner width is extreme, or for sans
serif letters, make the spacing somewhat
narrower (Figure 45).

The easiest way to achieve a balanced
layout is to construct all letters of the
word or line separately, cut them out,
and glue them down in the new arrange¬
ment for photographic reproduction.
Start with the largest necessary space
between two letters and decide on the
other spaces accordingly. The space
between L and A is often the widest one.
Do not try to solve this problem by
shortening the crossbar of L or the
serifs, or by squeezing the L too closely
to its neighbor. Keep in mind that a
necessarily wide spacing between L and
A is aesthetically preferable to maimed
letters. If you write a word or a line in
its entirety, you can correct the spacing
either when you copy the sketch onto
tracing paper or onto the final page.

Train your hand and eye through
frequent exercises. Start with groups of
letters like MOHN or mohn, be patient,
and you will acquire a feeling for the
right spacing of your letters.

If this aim seems elusive, write your
word over and over again in the form of
a list and make adjustments to the spac¬
ing until you are pleased with the result.
Another way would be to cut the word
apart and correct the spacing, but do not
overlook the fact that this process pro¬
duces shadows around the edges of the
cut letters. Use the correctly spaced
word as guide for later sequences that
contain diagonals and round forms.

For emphasis the letter spaces can
sometimes be increased beyond what is
necessary for balance. While capitals
may be set extra wide, lowercase letters
may not, but since legibility is at stake,
this maneuver should be used sparingly
and with selected words only.

If the letters are spaced very tightly,
their interior forms become the promi¬
nent design feature, decorative aspects
become primary, and legibility suffers.
Posters, book jackets, and similar mate¬
rial often utilize these factors (Figure
47). In other cases letters are spaced so
widely that they are spread across the
page in a purely decorative manner.
Even though ease of reading may be
compromised, the surprise effect of
these arrangements can attract the
reader's attention and is a legitimate tool
that has many creative possibilities. It
is self-evident that frequent repetition
diminishes this effect, and the beginner
especially is warned against copying such
layouts.

47 The ornamental value of the letters' interior
spaces can be stressed when the letters are very
close to each other. (From an advertisement of
the Schmidt Brothers ink factory. Design by Olaf
Leu.)

AUSGLEICHEN
SPERREN

Figure 46

Figure 47

Word Spacing

Keep spaces between words just as wide
as necessary for clarity. The line should
flow like a ribbon of even gray; large
spaces between words rip white holes in
it. If the line is made up of capitals only,
choose a word distance that is equivalent
to the width of I plus the necessary letter
space on each side. A good space be¬
tween words in lowercase letters is ap¬
proximately equal to the x-height, unless
a letter with round forms (o) or diagon¬
als (v) stands at the beginning or the end
of a word, in which case the space needs
to be slighdy reduced.

Line Spacing

Important factors in line spacing are:
letter size, stroke width, density of the

layout, and length of the lines. The let¬
ter size, in turn, is determined by the
purpose of the text and its intended
effect. Stroke width and density depend
on the chosen lettering style. Roman
appears lighter and needs a wider space
between lines than textura, fraktur, or
condensed sans serif, all of which appear
heavy and call for closer line spacing.
Lines that are made up of capitals only
need less space between each other than
lines of lowercase letters.

As a rule longer lines require more
distance from each other than short ones,
and lines of small letters seem long com¬
pared to lines of equal length that are
made up of bigger letters (see Figure 16).

Consider the importance of legibility
in decorative texts. Short lines make fre¬
quent word hyphenation necessary, and
complicate the reading process, but long

48 Roman. There is too little space between
the lines. The words look like brambles and are
hard to read.

Schrift kann zur Kunst werden - aber zuvor einmal ist sie Handwerk. Zur Kunst
wird sie nur dem, der das Handwerk beherrscht. Der rechte Schreiber gibt auf
seiner jeweiligen Stufe das Bestmögliche, und diese Einstellung zur Arbeit ist
ihm Quell ständiger Genugtuung und Arbeitsfreude. Eine besondere Verant-

49 Roman. There is too much space between
the lines. The text cannot be read smoothly, and
the intervals appear more important than the
lines themselves. Space restrictions limit the
number of lines in this sample, but the effect
would be the same even with three times as
many lines.

50 Roman. Just the right spacing between
lines makes the text easily legible and produces
an even value of gray for the entire text block.

51 Because the condensed sans serif has a
relatively dark appearance, it is possible to ar¬
range the lines in a closely spaced pattern.

Schrift kann zur Kunst werden — aber zuvor einmal ist sie Handwerk. Zur Kunst wird sie nur
dem, der das Handwerk beherrscht. Der rechte Schreiber gibt auf seiner jeweiligen Stufe das
Bestmögliche, und diese Einstellung zur Arbeit ist ihm Quell ständiger Genugtuung und Arbeits¬
freude. Eine besondere Verantwortung obliegt dem Gestalter von Schriften, die reproduziert